On the way into Tesco.
I was really looking forward to this weekend. After working pretty hard all week I was all set for a relaxing Friday evening, a fun Saturday followed by an evening watching the rugby world cup final (England vs South Africa) with our friends Dawn and Simon.
The weekend started OK, with our customary fish and chips. Friday evening passed without problems too. Then during the night Lucy woke at around 3.30am. She often does this. She wakes, makes a few grunting sounds, breaks wind and then goes back to sleep. But this time it was different. She started to cry. We then spent the next 90 minutes trying to get her back to sleep. We know from experience that she doesn't need a feed at this time any more and we didn't want to start establishing a pattern where she feeds at this time, particularly if it is just because it gets her off to sleep. But by the time it was nearing 5am we decided she might be hungry (even if she wasn't to start with) and Hayley went off to feed her.
When I got up with Oliver at 7am I felt rough. But once I got moving I was OK. he little man and I went off to Tesco for breakfast. Once there we had the works. There was no scrambled egg so I let him have a fried egg. He barely touched the yoke but quite liked the white. After a few minutes a noticed he had a rash on his neck. Oliver was allergic to eggs when younger but isn't really affected by them any more. Or so I had thought. When I called Hayley to ask her opinion she quickly put me straight. Although I had often seen him eating scrambled egg, he still doesn't eat fried eggs.... especially the yoke.
I felt such an idiot. I didn't even know that about my own son. I had naively assumed that scrambled egg was more or less as cooked as a well cooked fried egg. Tesco didn't sell piriton and I had none in my changing bag, so I brought him straight home and gave him some there. His neck and parts of his face were all red and he kept scratching them. But the piriton helped.
Oliver: blotchy and itchy after eating egg yoke.
So my dream weekend was not going to plan. Nonetheless, I suggested to Hayley that as it was a beautiful sunny day, we all take a walk down to the train and take a ride into Manchester. Oliver loves trains and I wanted him to see some real trains and go for a ride. SO off we strolled in the sunshine to Heaton Chapel station. On the way both kids fell asleep, so Hayley and I enjoyed a swift beverage at The Orangerie.
Oliver woke in time to arrive at the station and enjoyed seeing the trains before boarding for his ride to Manchester.
On arrival at Piccadilly we got off... which wasn't the greatest idea as we were meant to stay on until Oxford Road: another cock-up courtesy of Dad! But this afforded us a lovely walk through the spruced up area around Piccadilly and then down Canal Street and over to Oxford Road.
Our destination was Manchester Museum. It may not sound exciting, but we had been assured that there was an exhibition of live snakes and frogs. This is all Oliver talked about on the way. Once we got there we found entrance was free and Oliver got out of the double buggy and could run around freely (albeit hotly pursued by one of us).
After enjoying the snakes and frogs, we found on the top floor a light and airy "attic" space all kitted out for kids of all ages. There were tables and chairs of different heights and sizes for different aged kids, paper, crayons, toy animals and dinosaurs, soft toys.... and lovely sofas with childrens' books to read. In our case it was somewhere that Hayley could feed Lucy while Oliver and I drew and coloured in dinosaurs.
Oliver with dinosaurs and other beasts.
At this point Hayley realised that all we had spent in the entire afternoon was £3.50 for our return train tickets. "£3.50 for a day out" she kept telling me. She likes a bargain does our Hayley.
Hayley feeding Lucy.
We were very impressed with the museum. One word of warning though. There are two lifts, only one of which goes to the top floor. The other is also at the "wrong" end of the Money gallery if you have a double buggy. I managed to tilt it over a little without toppling Lucy onto the floor, but it was a truly tight squeeze.
We came home happy and on alighting the train, treated ourselves (including Oliver) to a packet of Quavers. (Big spenders eh!)
In the evening Dawn, Simon and Isabella came round. After the kids had gone to bed we watched the rugby (in which England lost but without disgracing themselves) and got through a wildly extravagant two bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. But then again, we did have a whole day out for £3.50.
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